To Rub or Brine Turkey

Q: I saw on another website where brining a turkey is the way to go, but you can also do it without the brine, by doing a dry rub similar to brisket or other types of barbeque. Do you recommend the dry rub only technique with turkey, and why?

A: I recommend brining if you can find a "Minimally Processed" bird that is not shot full of solution. The turkey will be the juciest turkey you ever did eat.

Rubbing it is fine as well and will turn out very tasty.. the main thing if you decide to rub is to get the rub up under the skin. The meat is where the flavor needs to be since a lot of people do not eat the skin and if they do they eat it separately from the meat.

You can rub the turkey down with some butter to help the rub stick to the meat. I have a rub offered below which works well on poultry. As an alternative you can also use some "Lemon Pepper with Seasoning Salt" and a light dusting of cajun seasoning for very good flavor.

I also like to use some "Zattarains Blackening Seasoning" but it is a little spicy so go easy with it.

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